Category: Monthly Garden Checklist

Here we go! March marks the beginning of garden season. It is the time to make the final preparations for planting your seeds.

Plan your garden
If you haven’t decided what you want to grow and where you want to grow it, do it now. For help planning your garden, check out this post.

Build your garden
Create the infrastructure you need to grow food. Construct raised beds, mounded beds, or procure containers. This could also mean carving out any space in your yard. For example, I have extra space up against my back fence where I have planted strawberries, a hop plant, and summer squash. You don’t need to construct anything, just make sure the soil is in good shape for growing plants, learn how to prepare your soil for planting. This is also a good time to add drip irrigation and/or hoop housing.

Hop plant climbing the back fence.

Build a trellis (or two)
If you plan to grow peas, raspberries, or even cucumbers or squash, you will want to have a trellis in place to support these climbing plants or plants that need extra support.

Snap pea trellis

Snap pea trellis

Weed and prepare the soil
Be sure to weed the spaces that you are going to be planting seeds. After you weed, prepare the soil. If you have a container garden, you will also need to prepare the soil for your containers by purchasing potting soil, compost, and fertilizer.

Start planting seeds
You can plant pea, potato, arugula, lettuce, and spinach seeds outdoors in the Pacific Northwest in March. I plan to get all of these into the ground by the end of the month and will plant the majority of my seeds outdoors in early April.

Peas

Arugula and Kale

Plant berries and bare-root plants
If you want blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, hydrangeas, lilacs, roses, or other bare-root or berry plants, get them in the ground this month. You can purchase these plants from your local nursery.

Divide perennials
If you have any perennials that you want to share or plant in another space in your yard/garden, you can dig them up, divide them, and replant. For example, I am going to dig up the roots of my mint plant, cut the root mass into separate chunks/divisions. Then replant the division or give one to a friend. You can do this with thyme, rhubarb (my rhubarb comes from a division from a friend), oregano, and chives.

Prune
This is a great time to prune your plants. Prune roses, hydrangeas, ferns, trees, blueberries, raspberries, grasses, and other bushes. Remove dead branches, and branches that rub up against one another to create more air circulation. This is important to maintain plants so that they stay healthy and strong.

Lastly, enjoy the fresh cut flowers that you planted in the Fall! Daffodils and tulips should be popping up. Did you miss the chance to plant flower bulbs in the Fall? Don’t fret, get ready now to plant dahlia tubers in May.

Did you plant cover crops in the fall? If so, this post is for you. Now is the time to get those crops into the soil so the nutrients can break down and decompose before you need to plant seeds, in 5 weeks!!

Skip ahead if you have cover crops and want to know what you need to do now.

Why plant cover crops? Cover crops are plants that are grown through the fall and winter to protect your soil and hopefully improve it for the next season. However, they can be controversial. In a backyard garden there is minimal garden space and cover crops may compromise your fall harvest. You may have to remove fall plants pre maturely in order to plant cover crop seeds. There is also a chance that the cover crops will not decompose in time to plant your spring garden. This timeline can be a challenge. I decided to try growing cover crops this year to learn something new. At a minimum, they have already helped to protect my bare soil from erosion and possible leaching of nutrients from the rains. You can learn more about cover crops in the post, How to put your garden to bed.

What to do with cover crops now:

Start by chopping down the crop. Use grass shears to trim the crops down.

Use a shovel to lift the crop out of the soil and turn it over into the soil.

Cover with compost. I’m not sure this step is completely necessary. However, I have a compost bin that is full and it never hurts to add more nutrients to build soil.

Finally, cover with burlap so that the crops can break down faster. The burlap allows air and water penetration but keeps it dark, enabling the ecosystem to work harder and faster to decompose the crops. I picked up free burlap coffee bags from my local coffee shop. I cut them down the edge so that they lie flat as sheets of burlap.

Now I hope that these crops decompose in time for planting my seeds in just 5 to 6 weeks!

Other uses for Burlap in the garden:

Mulching

Protecting the soil during the winter

To improve germination rates

Coffee bean burlap sacks can be used as planters

What do you use burlap for in the garden?

I’ll report back in a few weeks to let you know if the cover crops decomposed in time for planting my spring garden.

You won’t be getting too dirty in January and February, but you will get busy. Now is the time to plan and prepare your garden. Whether you are starting a garden for the first time, on your 5th year, or starting an herb pot, you want to put a little strategy behind your vision.

Your main task in January and February is to plan and make preparations to be ready to plant seeds and/or transplants in your garden, yard, and/or containers.

Before diving into what you will plant and where, there are a few other important items to-do.

January & February checklist

Purchase and plant bare root plants: roses, fruit trees, shrubs, etc. You will see these at your local nursery in February, possibly on sale. If you want roses, blueberries, raspberries, hydrangeas, lilacs, and other fruit and flowers like these, this is the time to make it happen. Learn more about planting bare root plants.

Take inventory of garden supplies, seeds, fertilizers, and potting soil. Do you have what you need to plant seeds? Do you have the seeds you will be planting? Are your gloves still in good shape? Do you have enough fertilizer?

Build structures to support growing plants. Are you planning to grow any plants that climb or need support? Like climbing peas or raspberries? You will need a trellis. Do you want to install irrigation this year? Do you want another raised bed? I have two raised beds and have decided it is time to add a third. I am creating a plan to build this bed before I need to plant seeds in this bed in March.

Prune perennial fruit trees/bushes and roses. Time to get everything cleaned up!

Plant onion and leek seeds indoors. If you want to grow your own onion and leek transplants, now is the time to do it. These crops take a long time to grow so it is best to plant as transplants versus directly planting the seeds in the ground.

Finish harvesting any crops that overwintered in your garden. It is time to finish off those leeks, carrots, and beets. Make room to plant in March!

While you are making preparations to be able to plant your seeds and transplants in March (specific to Seattle), you need to make a plan for what and where you will plant.

Check out this post to create a plan for what crops you will grow and where they will be planted.

Time to start daydreaming about a yard full of flowers and edible food!

Deciding what vegetables, herbs, fruits, and flowers you want to grow can be exciting and overwhelming. It is fun to think about a garden full of life, beauty, and food. But it is daunting to figure out when and where to plant.

Since the goal of this blog is to make it easy to grow food, I am going to try to keep this really simple and digestible. This is a long post, but hopefully easy to skim for the information you need.

I am embarrassed to admit that this is the first year I have been this organized. I have never planned using an Excel spreadsheet, implemented crop rotation, or even considered the variety of crops.

I say all of this because YOU CAN GROW FOOD AS LONG AS YOU1.) Get the seeds in the ground when they should be planted 2.) Tend to your garden. HOWEVER, if you spend the extra hour or two to strategize and document your plan, it will make it easier to plan year-over-year, you will yield more food, and it will be possible to make the most of the growing season.

Disclaimer: Everything in this post is based on what has worked for me personally. I am not saying it is the perfect way to plan. Also, like everything, you can get even more strategic and organized, but I am trying to keep it fairly simple.

Here we go!

If you use Excel, I strongly suggest using it for garden planning. You can also use an “Excel” Google Doc. This will allow you to easily make changes, stay organized, and save to reference year-over-year. Paper and pencil work great too. My Dad did want me to title this post “Garden planning for nerds”.

In this order, plan what crops you will grow and where:

Make a list of the plants you want to grow. Consider your available space and what grows best in your region.

Label each plant with its family name. You will want to plant families together. This will make it easy to decide where to plant each crop and ensure that you rotate these families of crops to control pests and diseases. You can find each crop’s family name online or in a garden book like High-Yield Vegetable Gardening. To learn more about this topic, check out this podcast. Add a column “Family”. For example, broccoli, cabbage, kale, and bok choy are all part of the Brassicaceae family “Brassicas”.

Determine the location you will plant your crops. This is where Excel really comes in handy.

Sort the crops by family name. You want to plant families together.

Choose a bed, trellis, or other location for your crops. Separate crops by bed, container, or other space in yard. I always put my tomatoes in containers because I think they are easier to manage in pots. I have a specific space in the yard with a trellis created for my Peas. I also consider if the crop is an annual or perennial. I prefer not to plant perennials in my raised beds. Perennials come back year after year so I want a location that I can dedicate to that crop. I found a space in my yard next to my back deck for perennial herbs like thyme, oregano, and sage.

Decide what crops will go in which raised bed. Now that you know which crops will be planted in a raised bed, you can plan which crops will go in what bed.

Choose one crop and one bed. I started with Garlic because it is already planted in one of my raised beds, bed #1. I will plant the other crops in garlic’s family in that bed, these would be “Alliums” and include leeks and chives.

Determine best companions. I reference this site or a garden book. Alliums (leeks, onions, etc) help Brassicas. So I will add all crops in the Brassicaceae/Brassica family into bed #1. Dill is also helpful to Brassicas, so I will add this to bed #1.

Consider the space a crop needs to grow. I know that squash require a lot of space and room to sprawl. I think my bed #3 is best positioned for squash to sprawl out and over. Squash and beans are good companions so I will add beans to bed #3. Beans are good companions with spinach, swiss chard, and cilantro, all added to bed #3.

What is left? That leaves me with carrots, lettuce, salad greens, arugula, and cucumbers. All will work well together and be put into my remaining bed #2.

Add flowers. One of my goals this year is to add more color and creativity to my raised beds. For the first year, I am going to plant beneficial flowers in my raised beds. I have added zinnias, calendula, and cosmos into beds #2 and #3. I had room to add them in bed #2 and purposely added to bed #3 to help attract insects to pollenate the squash.

Plan where each crop will be planted within the bed. This will make it quick and easy to actually plant the seeds and transplants in your bed because you already know where to plant. To do this, I also drew my beds in Excel (10 columns wide and 15 columns long for my 10ft x 5ft beds).

Consider the size of each crop. It is really helpful to make note of the height (short, medium, tall) that each crop will reach at full maturity. There have been so many times when I have planted a tall crop in front of a short crop and the short crop was always too shaded to reach its full potential. Now that you know which crop is going in each bed, you can plan the actual location of the crop in the bed by considering the height of the crop. Plant the taller crops on the north side of the garden or where shorter crops will not be shaded.

How much you want of each crop. If you really love a certain crop, you want to make sure you have plenty of space dedicated to growing that crop. For example, my family loves lettuce, salad greens, spinach, and beans. I want to be sure to dedicate plenty of space to these crops.

The life span of each crop. You need to know how long a plant will take up that space in the garden so that you are always growing something. It is such a bummer when you finish harvesting and have not prepared to replace that space with a new crop. For example, garlic will be harvested in July and that space will be available for a new crop. Decide now what you want to fill that space and can be planted in July/August.

Other Considerations:

Determine the month you will plant the seeds or transplant. You can find this information by searching on the internet, on the seed package, or in a garden book like Food Grown Right, In Your Backyard. You can also determine the month by knowing your last frost date. Most Spring crops can be planted after the last frost date. If you are using Excel, add a column and list the “Planting Month”. Some plants can be seeded continually every other week for multiple months. Note this by using “month – month”. So Lettuce can be directly seeded every week/ or every other week from March – September.

Consider crop variety. Until this year I did not pay much attention to the variety of crop. I just bought carrot seeds. Then I learned there are varieties that do best in my local environment. This year I am specifically researching the best varieties of each crop or at least documenting the varieties I choose so that I can better document the success of each crop. I love this Encyclopedia Botanica Podcast episode about garden planning and the best 2016 seed varieties.

Add a section for “date planted” and “notes“. It is super helpful to keep track of the day you actual planted your seeds/transplants. Also, add a note section for special notes on planting, harvesting, or anything else you want to note for this year or next.

Please know, from personal experience, it is worth every minute to plan what you will grow and where it will be grown. Once plants starting sprouting, every extra minute you have will be used maintaining, harvesting, and enjoying your garden. You will not have the time or want to spend the time trying to figure out what to plant next and where to plant it. Plus, when next year roles around, you already have a solid planning foundation in place.

Too much? Probably! I hope this post is helpful. Please share your tips, tricks, and questions in the comment section!

This last year was a big one. I gave birth to my first child and I decided to leave my corporate job. It was a LOT of change, really fast. It was the first year, in a long time, in which I felt incredibly present. This sudden lifestyle change and entirely new focus gave me the ability to think more creatively. Ultimately enabling me to tap even deeper into my love for gardening. Lucky me! I learned a lot this year, but even more, my passion and interest in edible gardening GREW big time!

When I think of ONE word to describe my gardening life in 2016, it is “productive”. I did a much better job at planning. I put seeds in the ground early enough to take advantage of growing food all year long. I invested the time to thin, weed, and fertilize, resulting in productive and healthy plants. When I think of ONE word to describe what I am aiming for in 2017, it is “diversity”.

Now that I better understand garden planning, timing, and growing cycles, it is time to have a little more fun! I tend to grow what I know I will eat i.e. what I can find at the grocery store. How boring. In 2017 I want to try growing vegetables, fruits, herbs, and flowers that are new to me and my family. I typically dedicate the space in my raised beds to edible food only. In 2017 I hope to create a larger ecosystem of vegetables, herbs, and flowers grown next to one another. Thanks to The Fake Farmgirl who opened my eyes to the concept of a Potager garden in which flowers, herbs, vegetables, and fruits are intermingled. Ultimately, creating a stronger ecosystem to pollenate, fertilize, and protect against unwanted pests. 2017 is the year of a more diverse, colorful, and experimental garden.

Last year at this time, I documented my key accomplishments and lessons learned. THIS IS A MUST to get closer to the garden that you want to have. I am happy to report that I put my learnings into action in 2016. So here I go again.

Key Accomplishments

Grew more of everything. I grew more vegetables, herbs, fruit, and flowers than the year before. This is because I actually planned and most importantly understood the timing of when I needed to get seeds and bulbs into the ground. To do this, I suggest having one or two really great gardening books on hand. Food Grown Right, In Your Backyard lists out what you need to do in the garden each month. Read the instructions on seed packages. I am embarrassed to say that I have not done this and then the seeds or bulbs don’t sprout because I planted too deep, didn’t soak bulbs, or planted at the wrong time. This seems so simple but is often overlooked.

Timing: directly planted seeds for my spring garden by end of March , summer garden in early May, Fall garden by end of July, and last planting beginning of September.

Had beautiful roses from May – October. We bought and planted bare root roses in February and enjoyed roses starting in May! Visit your local nursery for bare root roses that will do well in your environment.

Expanded my gardening community and knowledge. Through this blog, social channels, and reaching out to gardeners within my local community, I have created a network of people that inspire me to grow food, eat real food, and treat Mother Earth with love and care. I look forward to continuing to grow and connect with this community in 2017.

Lessons learned

I want to and can grow more. This will require another raised bed. I plan to build this bed in January to have it ready to roll for planting in March (blog post to come).

Grow more herbs. I learned how to air dry herbs this year and it was a success. These were great holiday gifts and I now have a container full of flavor from my own backyard. I definitely want to do this again in Fall 2017 and hope to have more herbs on hand to make twice as much. My two favorite herbs to air dry are Oregano and Thyme.

Grow more flowers. I said this last year. I did grow more flowers, but not nearly as many as I could have. Not only can these help create healthier vegetables, but who doesn’t want fresh flowers in their house all year long? I’m all about these flower recommendations from Seattle Urban Farm Company.

Onions need to be started as transplants in January. I directly seeded my onion seeds into the garden in late March. This didn’t work. Because I did not read any directions about growing onions, I just assumed I could directly plant the seeds into the garden in spring. It is best to plant onion transplants into the garden in late March and allow them to grow for 5-6 months before harvesting.

Sungold tomatoes rock! We had great success with this tomato variety and they are delicious. I personally like planting my tomato plants in large pots because they are easier for me to manage and don’t take up a lot of space in my raised bed.

Plant winter squash in the spring. I completely missed the boat on planting winter squash this year. You can direct seed winter squash and I will plan to do this by end of May. I hope to grow New England Pie Pumpkin and Honey Bear Acorn Squash.

Grow a “lettuce salad mix”. I love growing lettuce, I eat a lot of it and it is easy to grow in the PNW. This is the first year that I grew a lettuce mix. Not only was it fun to have a variety of lettuce leaves, but it also thrived in the garden.

Plant a fall garden. This year I was diligent about getting one more round of seeds into the ground at the beginning of September. This was well worth the effort and resulted in vegetables through January. It is such a treat to harvest carrots, beets, leeks, kale, and swiss chard on a cold, dark evening in the winter.

Reference a few key gardening resources. As mentioned before, it is so important to have a book or two on hand that makes it easier for you to know when to plant what. These are my go to gardening resources:

What has been your biggest learning in 2016? What is one thing you want to do in your garden in 2017?

I want to give a special THANK YOU to all of you who read my blog and support my gardening habits. Gardening would not be nearly as fun without those of you that help me learn, dig in the dirt, harvest, and enjoy the food!

Just last weekend, I had the opportunity to take my very first Seattle Tilth veggie gardening class. It was awesome! It really hit me that I truly love gardening, actually love it so much that I get amped up talking about the soil ecosystem. I know I’m excited about something when I actually arrive early, and it did not disappoint.

I chose to take this class “Put Your Garden to Bed” because I always struggle with actually knowing when to call it quits and how to make the most of my garden during the winter. This class provided a plethora of knowledge, but to keep it simple, check out my key takeaways specific to a garden in the Pacific Northwest.

Soil is everything. I have said it before and I will say it again and again, the health of the soil ecosystem directly correlates to the health of the plants. Healthy soil is full of organisms that convert organic matter and compost into nutrients for plants. It is important to continue to build this ecosystem in the winter months. All of the takeaways listed below are recommended with the end goal of maintaining and building healthy soil through the winter months.

Remove warm season crops, keep cool season crops. This was my biggest question going into the class, which vegetables do I need to finish harvesting and remove and which ones can I continue to grow through the winter months?

Remove: warm season crops such as beans, tomatoes, squash, peas, basil, peppers, cucumbers, celery, and onions. These need to be harvested and removed as soon as possible in order to seed a cover crop, garlic, and/or shallots.

Keep: cool season crops such as kale, lettuce, leeks, beets, and carrots. These are much easier to keep if you protect with floating row cover or a hoop house + row cover. Also, it is important to continue to harvest these cool season crops and not let them sit in the dirt the entire winter as they could rot due to the increased wetness.

Remove any plants that have disease. If you have a plant with a disease, you need to completely move this plant off site. If you live in the PNW, this means to put it into yard waste and not a compost pile. Take it off the property.

Plant a cover crop. This is the money maker! Remember how “soil is everything”? Cover crops not only protect the soil from the impact of the rain, but they inject organic matter and nutrients into the soil, while also hosting a bacterial ecosystem during months when this can become dormant. The best part, cover crops are so easy to plant!

Like anything, there are a million different types of cover crops for different goals, check out this list. However, to keep it simple, just find a soil builder mix, basically a blend of cover crops, and sprinkle this on your soil. Cover with some dirt, water, and let it grow.

About 4 weeks before you plant your spring vegetable seeds, you need to chop back the cover crops and put them into the soil. Basically, use a shovel to chop them up and turn them into the soil. If possible, cover with a burlap sack so that the cover crops compost faster, injecting an abundance of organic matter and nutrients into the soil. Yay!

Plant garlic, shallots, and fava beans. You can grow a few vegetables in the winter months. You need to get these in the ground now. Check out this post about planting garlic.

Mulch. Your warm season and diseased crops have been removed, your cover crop and garlic, shallots, and/or fava beans are planted. Now, you can add mulch to help keep soil temperatures a little warmer. There are several types of mulch, learn more here. I plan to use straw to protect my cool season crop and garlic. you do not need to use mulch on the cover crops.

There you have it, your checklist for wrapping up the garden season and making the most of your garden during the winter months. It is best to do all of this now, in the month of October. So get to it!

My last takeaway – take a class at Seattle Tilth. From veggie gardening to composting 101 to making herbal salves, there is something for everyone. It is always a good time to learn and try something new.

This post is for both active gardeners and those of you that want to start a garden or grow something. As much as we are starting to wrap up the 2016 gardening season, there is still plenty to be harvested, seeded, and prepped for the current season and next season (Spring 2017).

Here is your October checklist (according to my checklist):

Harvest your Fall crop! And remove plants that have been fully harvested. This includes pumpkins and winter squash. I plan to leave leak and carrots in the ground at least through October, if not November.

Leave bean and pea roots in the soil. I recently read NOT to remove the entire bean and pea plant after it has been harvested. Cut it down to ground level and leave the roots in the soil to continue to release nitrogen into the soil. Many crops remove nitrogen from the soil, but peas and beans add nitrogen into the soil.

Add a floating row cover. To try to extend the fall crop season, add a floating row cover. The picture below is a hoop house + a row cover. I suggest building a hoop house in the winter when you are not competing with vegetables to install the hoops. So for now, try a floating row cover.

Plant garlic. Choose the location wisely, as the garlic will grow and live in this location until it is harvested in July. Plant either softneck (stores longer and tends to be what you find at the grocery store) or hardneck (doesn’t store as long, but bigger and richer in flavor and harder to find at a grocery store). Thanks to this Encyclopedia Botanica podcast about Planting Garlic, I have already purchased my garlic seed from my local Farmer’s Market so I am all ready to plant in October. I will grow primarily hardneck because we eat a lot of garlic (so I don’t need to worry about storage) and it is not typically sold at grocery stores. A 1/3 of my total garlic planting will be softneck. For more on planting garlic, check out this post.

Plant Spring flower bulbs. You can plant tulips, daffodils, hyacinth, ranunculus, lilies, iris, crocus, and more in October. Make note of where you planted your bulbs. I have definitely dug these up a few months later when weeding. Don’t have a yard but have a deck? Then this is for you. You can absolutely grow these bulbs in pots.

Plant cover crops. Cover crops can grow in your soil during the winter, adding organic matter and nutrients, and keeping it healthy for next season. You can use clover, fava beans, rye grass, peas, buckwheat and more. If you decide to forego cover crops, be sure to cover your soil in mulch. For more information about cover crops, check out this post by my friend and fellow gardener.

Move citrus trees indoors. And any other houseplants that have been outside for the summer. I have a lemon tree that has been living outdoors, as temperatures begin to near low 50s at night, it is important to move indoors.

Plant blueberries and fruit trees. In the PNW, you can plant these now or in the Spring.

Prune and clean up roses. Of course, only do this after roses have finished blooming. Remove rose leaves on the ground to prevent disease.

Lift and divide perennials. If you want to spread the love of any of your favorite perennials or share them with your friends. This is a great time to lift and divide them while the ground is still warm. Learn more here.

As you can tell, this is a great month to wrap up a fabulous 2016 and already start planting and prepping for 2017.

Important side note: You never have to feel like you need to do all of these things. It is simply a guide to help you decide what you want to do in your garden, yard, or in the pots on your deck.

What is on your checklist to do in the garden in October? Any tips and tricks to share?

As we wrap up the month of July, there is limited time to plant seeds for a Fall harvest. I am quickly taking inventory of my garden and making a to-do list for this final week of July and early August to ensure that I make the most of this precious dirt.

This weekend, strap on those gloves and do this:

Clear out any remaining crops that are harvested, dead, or no longer producing food you want to eat. For me, this will be broccoli, spring kale, and spring carrots.